[Arvydas] just recently purchased a rock Band 3 Wii keyboard believing it would be an outstanding as well as extremely low-cost (£9.99) MIDI controller. The keyboard has a appropriate DIN-5 MIDI out port, so theoretically the only thing needed to plug this into a computer is a USB to MIDI adapter. Unlike the keyboard, the MIDI adapter was a affordable piece of Chinese cruft, however provided some ingenuity as well as a handful of components, he was able to get whatever working.
The 30-year-old MIDI specification includes a few schematics on exactly how to correctly link MIDI gadgets together. the most essential part of these schematics is an optoisolater on the MIDI in, a important addition thinking about early MIDI keyboards expense countless dollars. It seems [Arvydas]’ MIDI to USB adapter didn’t include this important component, instead replacing it with a easy resistor. Anything to keep costs down, right?
To get the MIDI adapter working, [Arvydas] headed over to Maplin as well as purchased an optioisolator, With whatever wired up on a breadboard, he got it to work as well as ultimately transplanted the circuit to the adapter’s PCB.
It’s a excellent piece of work to get this MIDI adapter functioning, particularly because it’s skeptical the affordable adapter would have worked with any MIDI device.
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